Families and friends desire to see one another. We desire to be a part of one another's lives. Unfortunately, we are more geographically dispersed than ever. Thus, family and friends can not see each other as frequently as desired. This separation makes it more difficult to be a part of each others lives.
Video calling (also called video conferencing) is a promising technology to allow friends and family to interact both aurally and visually, even when far apart. Heretofore, however, there have been no satisfactory video calling options for consumers. There are professional-grade systems, such as those available from POLYCOM and others, but such professional-grade systems require complex hardware that is both prohibitively expensive and difficult to use.
At the other end of the spectrum lie solutions based on a personal computer (“PC”), such as web cams and video chat software available from SKYPE and others. While relatively inexpensive, however, such PC-based solutions have several shortcomings of their own. As an initial matter, the call quality of a video call using such solutions is far from optimal, and the software and hardware required to implement them can be confusing and error-prone. Perhaps more importantly, such solutions tether the user to a personal computer, which is often located in an office or study, and they generally, therefore, cannot provide an inclusive experience for an entire family.
Dedicated video phones provide another option, but they present their own problems. For example, video phones are typically expensive, a shortcoming that is exacerbated by the need to buy multiple, identical phones just to carry on a conversation. Further, video phones often operate over a standard POTS (“plain old telephone system”) telephone line and have very small screens. As a result, video phones rarely offer satisfactory video call quality and, even more than PC-based systems, fail to provide an inclusive family video calling experience.
Thus, there is a need for a video calling solution that solves these and other deficiencies found in current products.